Working
with the poorest of the poor / Ps Paul
Silvanus
In the little town of Puzhal in the Chennai district
Prabhu lived with his family. His father was a stone mason but he was also an
alcoholic and they lived in dire poverty. Prabhu’s father Sekar worked very
hard but to ease the tiredness and aches in his body from the physical hard
work he drank and eventually found every excuse to drink. Desperate for her
family, Prabhu’s mother went out to work as a daily paid labourer, carrying
sand and cement bags at a construction site. Eventually Prabhu as the eldest
son stopped schooling and started working to help support his family. While these obstacles shaped Prabhu’s life
and circumstances, they taught him that, “poverty doesn’t give you strength or
teach you about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”
This was the simple and brutal realities of his life, and the lives of all the
Indians around him.
The abuse of alcohol finally took its toll on Sekar’s
body and he fell very ill. Having no money he could only afford the illicit
alcohol sold illegally and this burnt his intestines and he was in constant
pain, unable to eat. The whole family suffered and it was a dark time for them.
One day a Christian family friend came to visit them and he brought with him Ps
John Jaya Singh who shared the Gospel with the family and came daily to pray
for Prabhu’s father. After a few weeks, Prabhu and his family began to notice
that his father was looking better and he was not in constant pain. As the days
passed, he began to get stronger and could eat. After a few months Sekar was
completely healed and he never went back to drinking alcohol again. There was
great rejoicing and the whole family of 5 accepted Jesus and received water
baptism.
One day while praying with the family Ps John turned to
Prabhu and told him that Prabhu had a calling on his life to serve God and
after praying earnestly he resigned from his job as a mason and he joined a
mission training centre. After he graduated he served in the Kanchipuran
District and the Lord blessed him with a wife, Jeba Priyam who shared his
passion and love for serving the Lord. After serving a year there, he and his
wife moved to the Teynampet city slum and started their ministry there. By God’s
grace he planted churches in the Teynampet Slum and in the villages of
Velcherry and Semmancheri.
Ps Prabhu and his wife worked in the Slum Daycare Centres, reaching out to the Dalit
children and their families. After school the children come to the centres
where they receive help with their school work. The children go to the welfare
schools where the standards are far below the normal government schools and the
teachers are quiet indifferent to the students because they are Dalit(The
outcaste or lowest caste in India’s caste system). There Jeba cooks them a
meal, for many their only meal for the day and they are also taught moral and
hygiene issues. The parents in the slums are happy to send their children as
this keeps them of the streets and from roaming around picking up bad habits
and mixing with bad company getting involved in drugs, prostitution and
alcohol, a real threat in the slums.
The slums are not an easy place to work. People there
live in extreme poverty and are suspicious of everyone believing that no one
really cares about them. Life there is a daily fight for survival. They live in
some of the most dilapidated conditions in the world, unfit for human
habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding, lack of ventilation or
sanitation facility and having drinking water facilities in unhygienic
conditions. This is where Ps Prabhu and Jeba chose to serve God and His people.
They have faced many challenges but they have remained
steadfast in their love and commitment to the Lord. They have shown love to
these unfortunate people going out of their way to lend a hand, asking nothing
in return for themselves. This has touched the hearts of the people there and
many have been saved through the Gospel, even the most hardened hearts. Below are some of the testomonies of God’s
love through the people who have not only felt but seen God working in their
lives.
Saravanan, a high school student, started coming to the
Sunday school with his friends and as Ps Prabhu shared the Gospel Saravanan’s
heart was changed and he gave his heart to Jesus and accepted Christ. His
family is Hindu so he has to remain a secret believer but he has not wavered
and remains steadfast.
Muniamma’s husband fell ill and she sought the Hindu
mediums for help but none could heal him. Desperate she came to Ps Prabhu to
pray for him and God healed him. Today this family has accepted Jesus and been
baptised. Miss Sandhya came to work at the Day Care centre as a part time
teacher. She experienced the love of God as she worked with Ps Pabhu ans Jeba
in the centre and she has been saved.
Ezumalai was a hired killer who had been sent to prison
for murder. On his release after serving for many years he had come to live in
the slums. The many fights he had in prison had taken a toll on his body and he
had come out of prison unable to walk. A Christian friend in the slum began to
minister to him urging him to come to church and eventually he agreed to go.
There God touched him and transformed him. He repented of his sins and accepted
Christ and then God healed him and he was able to stand up and walk- He became
a new creation in Christ. What laws and punishment could not achieve the power
of Jesus alone did.
God is using Ps Prabhu and his wife powerfully in the
slums and so many lives have been touched and transformed because this couple
went where God had called them to go. They did not look at the squalor and dirt
all around but what they saw were God’s people hungry for Him and in need of
saving.
Romans
10:14-15 “But how can they call on him to
save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they
have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone
tells them? And how will anyone go and
tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful
are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
Prayer points.
1. Pray for every citizen to be blessed with equal
rights and opportunities, not an India which is divided and
discriminates on religion, region, caste, class, gender and income.
2. Pray with Christians in India for God’s provision
and protection as they preach the gospel in places with
anti-conversion laws.
3. Pray for restoration in the relationship of Indian
slum dwellers with God, other people and their societies to
bring them hope and renewal;
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